Week 11: More Jataka Tales, Part A

This week I read More Jataka Tales, and I enjoyed it just as much as last week. Last week I read Jataka Tales so I thought it would be a good idea to continue that reading. I really liked the story of the Stupid Monkeys. I have yet to write about animals as my only characters, and this upcoming story I am thinking about doing so. It would be fun to have animals talk to each other and I think I could come up with something to write about. I enjoyed this reading and am looking forward to Part B.

Bibliography: More Jataka Tales by Babbitt (Link)

Monkey: (Pixabay)

Week 10 Story: The Casino

A long hike up and over the Himalaya's was the only thing Chase expected over the next month. He and two of his other friends were trying to get to the other side of the mountain range to lead back the tribe they had recently acquired. Although Chase had no horse's or weapons for these men, he thought they were valuable enough to bring back to their village, Bakbeph, and deal with the missing pieces later.

It was a brutal winter and the men began to struggle on their trip. Chase and his two closest advisors, Carter and Luke, started to have death on their minds. They continued the long trek and began to see the summit of the mountain. On that summit, they saw very bright flashing lights. When they came closer to the lights, they could see the word 'Casino' enlightened in the snowfall. Without question, Chase lead his men into the casino.

He took a seat at one of the blackjack tables, attempting to win some money for him and his two advisors. All of the dealers in the casino were Raksasha's and were very intimidating. The Raksasha's main job was to kill anybody who tries to leave the casino without paying their debts. However, they did not know Chase's intelligent skill at blackjack.

He began to play hand after hand, without winning or losing much money. Chase then started to speculate his trip and realized that without more gold, they had no chance of survival. Chase went all in. He pushed all of his gold onto the table for one hand of blackjack. The dealer then dealt, and Chase had two 9's.

"Split 'em" Chase said confidently.

"You are out of money, I am afraid I cannot do that" replied the Raksasha.

"My advisors and I will give you our horses and our services for life if we lose. Split the cards" Chase demanded.

The Raksasha split the cards. He was showing a 10, so Chase's chances of winning were small. Chase then got dealt a 10 and another 10, giving him 19 on each hand.

Now it was time for the Raksasha to show his hand. He was already showing 10 and he flipped his other card to show his hand. It was an 8, totaling 18.

Chase had won everything. He got double his gold, three horses and also three additional men. Chase and his advisors then left the casino and continued their trip to lead their tribe back to their village.

The End.

Author's Note:
This story thought started when I read about the dice game in week 7. I love going to the casino, so I thought it would be a lot of fun to write about it, and it was. In the reading, Bhima had to sacrifice a horse, and that is where I incorporated the stories. Bhima, who I renamed Chase, went into the casino and gambled all of his gold, horses, and men. In the reading Bhima had to cut off the head of a horse and sacrifice him. Although he did not do that in mine, he still did put himself and everything he had at sacrifice on blackjack.

Bibliography: Mahabharata by R.K. Narayan (Link)

Blackjack: (WikiCommons)

Reading Notes: The Jatakas Tales of India. Part B

For Part B of this book I want to focus on Why the Owl is not King of the Birds. I have incorporated Kings into a lot of my stories, so I was excited when I came across the part where there was a non intense story about Kings (kind of). I am interested in taking on this kind of approach in the future and we will see how it pans out for me. Overall I enjoyed this reading and am looking forward to continuing to choose our readings in the future.

Bibliography: The Jatakas Tales of India by Ellen Babbitt (Link)

Owl: (Pixabay)

Reading Notes: Babbitt: Jataka Tales. Part A

This week I read Babbitt Jataka Tales and specifically liked The Turtle Who Couldn't Stop Talking part. This was an interesting little story and I think that is what I want to do with my next story. I have been very dark and serious in my stories and I am thinking about lightening it up. Although the Turtle ends up dying, I thought of this as a short little tale and I really liked it.

Bibliography: The Jatakas Tales of India by Ellen Babbitt (Link)

Turtle: (Pixabay)

Reading Notes: Valiant Archer, Supreme Teacher - Part B

It's kind weird that Drona was born in a pot, and not only born in a pot, his name also means Pot. This struck me as kind of weird, but hey it's Indian Epics. At least Drona has cool secret military skills to offset his weird birth and name. I like the fact that Drona is seeking pupils that will lead to his revenge on Drupada. This calls for a very exciting story and I may have to use this for one of mine in the future. Overall, this was a fun story to read.

Bibliography: Valiant Archer, Supreme Teacher (Link)

Drona: (Wikipedia) 

Reading Notes: Tales of Arjuna Part A

This week I read Tales of Arjuna and really enjoyed it. This was my first comic book to read this semester and I really enjoyed it, I need to find more! I like how the monkey was interactive with the humans, that definitely made for it to be a more lighthearted and funny story. Overall, I really enjoyed this story.

Bibliography: Tales of Arjuna (Link)

Monkey: (Pexels)

Week 8 Comments and Feedback

I have enjoyed giving and receiving feedback throughout this semester. I think it is very important in order to get the best work possible. It is good to get several different eyes on your work and hearing from those people. I have tried to adjust to the feedback I have gotten, and hopefully it has made my work better. I have gotten good feedback from the other students so thank you for that! Looking forward, I am going to be more specific with my feedback to help other students.

Feedback: (Pixabay)

Week 8 Reading and Writing

I've enjoyed the reading and writing of this class so far. I like the free structure of the course and how we get to take it in whatever direction we want. My stories have mostly been about battles and kingdoms, and looking forward I am going to change that. I've been focusing on that in my readings and story planning this past week. I am going to focus on a bigger variety of things and see where it takes me. Feels good to be halfway through, it has really flown by.

Kingdom of Monett: (Wikipedia) 

This has been my favorite picture of the semester because it looks similar to what I had pictured in my head when writing the stories. It is fun to write about battles and kingdoms, as I have never done that before the start of this semester. 

Week 7 Story Planning: Gambling in the Himalayas

This week I have focused on many different elements of the reading that I am going to focus on for my story next week. In reading A, the thing that stuck with me the most is the scene where Bhima kills the Rakshasa. I am not going to revolve around this same plot, but in reading B, I got really into the dice game that was played. And my thought for my story this week is to deviate from battle and war scenes, and write about something different. So, after thought and reading, I decided that Bihma and some made up characters will be hiking through the Himalayas to buy land on the other side of the mountain range. They will be carrying lots of gold in order to purchase this desired land. While traveling through the mountain range, they will stumble across a casino, and curiously enter in and gamble some of the gold they have on them. The Rakshasa's will be the dealers at every table and own the casino. I am planning on having Bhima lose all of his gold, and gamble away everything, including a sacred horse he is riding on. The sacred horse idea came from reading D, when Bhima cut the head off a horse and it ascended into heaven. Maybe throughout the week I become nicer and make Bhima win a lot, but I think I will stick to my plan of devastation!


Research: I looked into more depth about the Rakshasa, because they are going to be in control of the casino in my story. I did not know that they were also called "Maneaters" but this makes writing about them even more exciting. Rakshasa's were created from the breath of Brahma when he was asleep, which is a really obscure point of creation. They are ugly and enourmous creatures who have two fangs on the top of their mouth. These will be very intimidating casino dealers in my story! (Link to Rakshasa)


Bibliography: Mahabharata by R.K. Narayan (Link)

Dice Game: (Pixabay) 

Reading Notes: Mahabharata, Part D

I thought the sacrifice of the horse was a very intense part of the reading. When Bhima cut the head, it immediately ascended to heaven, and disappeared in front of everybody. I am going to go a different direction from this. I still haven't thought of my characters to use, but I think I am going to have a sacred horse be a source of a debt payment when the characters come across the casino in the Himalayas. This will provide a new theme and feeling to the reading, and will deviate from my past stories which have revolved around battles.

Bibliography: Mahabharata by R.K. Narayan (Link)

Sacred Horse: (Pexels)

Reading Notes: Mahabharata, Part C

I really enjoyed when Draupadi and the four Pandava brother's begain their journey in the Himalayas. I think it would be really interesting to set a story in the mountains, which I have yet to do. Most of mine have revolved around battles of different kingdoms. But after reading the dice game last week, and the Himalayas this week, maybe I will select some characters to come across a hidden casino in the middle of the mountain range. This may be a little far fetched, but with more brainstorming throughout the week, I am sure I will get a basis for my plot.

Bibliography: Mahabharata by R.K. Narayan (Link)

The Himalayas above the clouds: (Wikipedia)